THE COMFORTS OF HOME - Jodi Thomas
A Harmony Novel
Berkley
ISBN: 978-0-425-24448-7
November 2011
Contemporary Romance

Harmony, Texas

It's late winter in Harmony, and the locals are far from hibernating. Reagan Truman, now twenty and firmly settled on her adoptive uncle's farm, has an old friend on her mind. Noah McAllen, the first member of the town to welcome her years before, seems to be struggling with his future as a bull rider. And then there is her uncle, who, at ninety, is visibly weaker, and who has made provisions for her after his death. Reagan doesn't want to think about that. He is the only family she has ever known.

Tyler Wright, the owner of the local funeral home, has a few things going on in his life. His long-term friendship with Kate, an Army major, seems to be going nowhere, despite the fact that he would like to take it further. Plus, he has just taken in a pregnant woman he found sleeping in her car at the cemetery. What will Kate think when she finds out? Which she will, of course, with the town gossip, Martha Q, not missing a trick.

Local post office employee Ronelle Logan has spent her life living under the paranoid thumb of her loud-mouthed mother, Dallas. Since her father's death, Ronelle has born the burden of Dallas 's cruelty and neglect, avoiding friendships, steering clear of people, pretending to be invisible. And then she delivers a letter to Marty Winslow, a man paralyzed in a skiing accident, and her life suddenly begins to change in startling ways.

Claire Matheson, a tortured but celebrated artist who depicts men dying in terrible ways, isn't making life easy for the man who loves her. Denver Sims wants to get closer to her, but she seems to only be interested in their brief visits in far off hotel rooms and doesn't want to be seen at his house in Harmony. What can Denver do to melt the icy heart of this beautiful woman?

Welcome back to Harmony, readers! All of the regulars make brief appearances, and there are plenty of surprises and excitement in store. There is nothing especially different about Harmony's citizens; they're just like people anywhere else, but readers get to experience the heartache, love, joy, and pain that people everywhere share. It's the writing and the characters that we all fall in love with in Jodi Thomas's books. And THE COMFORTS OF HOME doesn't disappoint. Be ready to read this in one sitting, folks. You won't want to put it down once you turn to the first page.

Jani Brooks